What's behind Inter and Milan's opposing choices?

Massimiliano Allegri 's last time as AC Milan coach was a night in mid-January 2014. Domenico Berardi hadn't yet turned twenty, Mario Balotelli was coming off the best half-season of his life, and a week later, Forza Italia leader and AC Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi would appear before Matteo Renzi to sign the Nazarene Pact. Sassuolo-AC Milan, in the midst of a fog, had finished 4-3, with four goals from the black-and-green wunderkind, and Allegri was kindly dismissed, with all due honors. Sure, Berardi is still at Sassuolo, but otherwise the scenario has changed drastically. Yet, since his return, Count Max seems perfectly suited to the role of the new-old Rossoneri leader. He has dampened the enthusiasm externally, has tried to restore order and work in harmony with the club, and has put a brave face on difficult departures. It's hard to say which of the two needed the other more: Allegri, fresh from a final snapshot of pure Juventus coaching, trumpeted to the four winds on the pitch of the Olimpico in Rome, or Milan, emerging from a season of ups (few) and downs (many), with broken bones and the reputations of both coaches severely tested.

Cristian Chivu 's last appearance as an Inter player in Serie A was one evening in early May at the San Paolo in Naples, before Maradona was even around. Edinson Cavani had made the Fuorigrotta crowd roar three times, a puzzle for Stramaccioni's Nerazzurri. Chivu had taken the field wearing the captain's armband, but looking back at that lineup years later raises an Ancelotti-esque eyebrow: the odd pairing of Alvarez and Guarin up front, given the injuries to the entire attacking lineup, the three-man midfield of Benassi, Kovacic, and Kuzmanovic, and Jonathan and Alvaro Pereira on the flanks. Unlike Allegri, Chivu never really left: he learned the trade, worked in Inter's youth team, rose to the Primavera, won a Scudetto, and then, last February, rolled up his sleeves to save Parma from a downward spiral, even trying to help his old club with a draw against Napoli that had the potential to secure the Scudetto, before a nightmare named Pedro materialized at San Siro.

The summer for AC Milan and Inter is unfolding with very distant prospects, almost as if further accentuating the city's rift. The common denominator is redemption, because despite the gap in points, the Nerazzurri emerged from the season finale with more scars than one could have imagined just twenty days after the Munich finale. Chivu has already had the opportunity to get to know the group during that strange experiment called the Club World Cup, but there's no reason to bet too much on the true magnitude of that tournament for the Nerazzurri: perhaps this is also why, in his first press conference since returning to work, he remained faithful to his traditional "Calcio" approach. Remaining at the top, the intention not to copy anyone, hard work as the only path forward, and no desire to speculate on the role of possible favorite. At this stage, he seems very careful not to smear the paper, even if his Inter will inevitably have to be slightly different from Simone Inzaghi's.

On the other hand, Allegri has the audacity of someone who has been sailing these seas for decades and is tired of any experience. He too has called for AC Milan to be stripped of the label, if not of favorite, then at least of being an outsider for the title: unlike Antonio Conte, who admirably capitalized on a year without cups to launch an assault on the league, the Tuscan coach has already fallen for it; he knows what it feels like to be without European competition but without the strength, with a squad in hand, to go and claim the tricolor cloth. "We have to play in the Champions League to compete with the great opponents," he said on the eve of the test against Perth Glory. He acts like a fireman and places the burden of prediction on others, and this too is pure "Calci" style, just as it reflects Allegri's perfect style to point out that the standings are calculated from March onwards, not before. Yet there's a lively atmosphere, perhaps it's the friendlies, perhaps it's the presence of a legend like Luka Modric in a group that otherwise still needs to be completed and recalibrated, perhaps it's the thought that it will be difficult to do worse than last year.

There's both old and new in Milan's summer football season, even if it's perhaps just perception: it's hard to resist the allure of the tried and true, and equally hard to fully embrace the new, because a relegation to safety against Parma in the final third of the season doesn't ignite the fans' enthusiasm. Perhaps the transfer market will take care of that, with the tug-of-war with Atalanta for Lookman seemingly the perfect spark, but it's also true that this time last year, the Koopmeiners soap opera was abuzz in Turin, and the first season didn't end well. Perhaps Chivu himself will succeed, having demonstrated some remarkable ideas at Parma and deserving of trust . The time for memories, for those last moments to relive, is also coming to an end: Allegri, for example, will soon rediscover what it means to play a Coppa Italia match in the middle of August. The last time was August 16, 2009, Triestina-Cagliari 1-0, with a goal by Jaroslav Sedivec, on a day that went down in sporting history for Usain Bolt's 9.58 at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin. With all due respect to Sedivec.

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